DirecTV started offering some 4K content around the end of past year.
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Lack of content be damned, DirecTV says it’ll be launching live 4K broadcasts early next year.
Phil Goswitz, senior vice president of video and space communications at DIRECTV confirmed the company’s plan for 4K live broadcasting during the recent TranSPORT conference in NY. “Our goal is to have them tuned to DirecTV and have as much linear live content, especially sports content, as soon as possible”. According to reports, the satellite pay-TV company is now testing 4K sports broadcasts ahead of a formal launch in 2016.
He downplayed the “myth” of 4K’s technology challenges, offering the old axiom that “content is king”. This will drive a demand for content that looks great on such powerful screens, which DirecTV is happy to provide. It appears that’s what DirecTV is aiming to do now. Its rival, Dish offers an on-demand 4K video service.
If you recently bought a 4K set during black Friday or Cyber Monday, you may have noticed by now that there’s not all that much 4K content to watch on it yet. Users were required to own the Genie HD DVR, and that box only worked with a few Samsung 4K TVs.
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DirecTV has the capacity for 50 UltraHD channels, atop the company’s existing HD and SD offerings, Goswitz said. Thankfully, it seems as though that will change soon, with DirecTV announcing that it will begin 4K broadcasts starting in early 2016. He added that it is “bringing checkbooks” to partners who want to offer 4K channels. The current content landscape for 4K movies, programming and live entertainment broadcasts most of all is still strangely and annoyingly sparse, even as 4K UHD TV sales grow almost exponentially in nearly all major electronics markets.
